[Pmwiki-users] CSS layout in pmwiki-0.6

[Christian Ridderström]

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Patrick R. Michaud wrote:

> I agree strongly with the concept that logically related
> items should be grouped together...I was trying (somewhat
> unsuccessfully) to achieve this in the layout.  Note that
> the actual choice of links can change--I threw "WikiHelp"
> into the mix just to provide a bit of balance in the display, 
> but I don't think it's really needed and could be eliminated
> from the header/layout (indeed, has that page ever/yet 
> offered any really useful information?).

I actually frequently go via that page to the documentation index :-)
But perhaps it'd be better in general for sites to have a help page that 
covers both the site and has links for tips on how to edit etc
(e.g. PmWiki/WikiHelp could simply be included in that page).

> So, the only
> site-wide or group-wide pieces of information that are
> needed would be "RecentChanges" and the Search, and
> RecentChanges could conceivably move into the title area 
> instead of the header area.  

Um... the page I looked at already had 'SearchWiki', search form and 
go-button in the header area, but 'RecentChanges' in the title area.

My general impression is that the current layout is a bit too wasteful 
with vertical space...  I'd like to keep the top stuff minimal 
height-wise, because it'll always be there taking vertical area away from 
you (so that you don't have to scroll more than you have to).
 
> I've redone the layout based on this and would appreciate
> more review/comments:  http://www.pmichaud.com/work/beta/pmwiki.php.
> 
> Other thoughts:
> 
> I don't like layouts where the logo occupies the left
> margin by itself, reducing the space for the body.

Do you mean horizontal space? (If so, I agree). Oh, speaking of the width, 
maybe we should try and take into account that a "good" width for text is 
about 72-76 characters (don't know if that includes spaces though :-)

On a sidenote: I set the width of the sidebar+body of the lyx site 
so that it'll fit nicely on my laptop screen when I've got the 
bookmark/notes/history/...-panel in opera open --- how's that for an 
arbitrary reason :-)

> By default I think the body should take up the available
> width unless there is something else (such as a sidebar 
> or menu) occupying the left margin along with the logo.
> 
> Also, by default I think a logo should go in the upper-left-corner
> of the display, as opposed to top center or within
> the page content itself.  Logo in upper-left-corner is just
> the common convention for web sites and I think there needs
> to be a good reason to go against widely-held conventions.

I agree, upper-left is good as a default position.

Oh, and before I forget, here's something I thought about a few days ago: 
There are quite a few actions available for a page/group/site:

   Page actions:	  Group actions:	  Site actions:
 - Edit page		- Recent changes	- Search site
 - Upload file					- All recent changes
 - Page revisions				- All recent uploads
 - Printable version
 - Modify attributes

and I'm sure the list goes on. Anyway, instead of trying to cram links for 
all of these actions into the page somewhere, how about keeping just the 
most common ones and adding a link to an 'action-page', where links for 
all actions are available (preferably with an explanation). These 
links/actions would of course act on the original page.

/Christian

-- 
Dr. Christian Ridderstr?m, +46-8-768 39 44       http://www.md.kth.se/~chr